First Base

Here is the complete opposite of the American League catcher position. At first base we have four players who deserve to make the team.

Miguel Cabrera - .337 BA, .412 OBP, 20 HR, 68 RBI, 57 R, 2 SB

Justin Morneau - .348 BA, .443 OBP, 16 HR, 52 RBI, 49 R

Paul Konerko - .295 BA, .387 OBP, 20 HR, 56 RBI, 45 R

Kevin Youkilis - .297 BA, .416 OBP, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 62 R

Judging who to start probably comes between Cabrera and Morneau and you can basically flip a coin with that one.

Cabrera has Morneau in the "sexy" stats of home runs, RBI and runs, but Morneau has Cabrera in average and OBP. Cabrera has Morneau in slugging, but OPS goes to Morneau.

It's a tough year to be at first base in the AL.

Why Mark Teixeira (.234 BA, .345 OBP, 13 HR, 49 RBI, 53 R) is in second in the voting and Carlos Pena (.199 BA, .316 OBP, 16 HR, 50 RBI, 38 R, 2 SB) is in fifth, while Konerko is not even in the top five is beyond me.

Pena and Teixeira are your only real "guys who just missed the cut", but their numbers clearly show why.

Kendry Morales is another guy who would've have been in the mix had he not jumped on home plate.

Outfield

Another cluster of talent in the outfield. We have a couple of shoe-ins though.

Josh Hamilton - .340 BA, .385 OBP, 18 HR, 58 RBI, 52 R, 6 SB

Vernon Wells - .280 BA, .331 OBP, 19 HR, 47 RBI, 44 R, 4 SB

Carl Crawford - .317 BA, .378 OBP, 7 HR, 39 RBI, 59 R, 29 SB

Also should make the team:

Alex Rios - .307 BA, .363 OBP, 13 HR, 42 RBI, 49 R, 21 SB

Shin-Soo Choo - .285 BA, .389 OBP, 13 HR, 43 RBI, 48 R, 12 SB

Brett Gardner - .317 BA, .399 OBP, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 49 R, 24 SB

Not a For-Sure But Could Make the Team

Nick Swisher - .287 BA, .365 OBP, 13 HR, 47 RBI, 47 R

Torii Hunter - .288 BA, .368 OBP, 12 HR, 53 RBI, 45 R, 6 SB

Magglio Ordonez - .314 BA, .388 OBP, 10 HR, 49 RBI, 45 R, 1 SB

Ichiro Suzuki - .332 BA, .387 OBP, 3 HR, 24 RBI, 32 R, 21 SB

Guys Who Just Missed the Cut

Jose Bautista - .229 BA, .355 OBP, 20 HR, 50 RBI, 48 R, 3 SB

Jose Guillen - .281 BA, .342 OBP, 14 HR, 50 RBI, 42 R, 1 SB

Denard Span - .281 BA, .355 OBP, 3 HR, 34 RBI, 49 R, 16 SB

Austin Jackson - .308 BA, .357 OBP, 1 HR, 17 RBI, 45 R, 13 SB

Here is where the fans prove how ridiculous they are.

Ichiro is first among all outfield voting, Nelson Cruz (41 games played) is in fourth, Curtis Granderson (.235 BA, .311 OBP, 7 HR, 22 RBI, 28 R, 6 SB) is in sixth, B.J. Upton is in 10th with a .226 batting average, Wells is in 11th for some reason and Rios isn't in the top 15.

Michael Cuddyer is also 12th in the voting.

I put Choo as basically a for-sure in because he is clearly the only Cleveland Indians representative and he does deserve it.

American League May Lose

I mentioned 33 players who should make the team, but the problem is fan voting will vote a couple starters who should not be there—period, taking away from a non-starter who should be.

I also did not mention one Baltimore Oriole and I didn't put any Oakland Athletic in a for-sure in position, which could mean two more undeserving players making the team.

Another problem is the American League is heavy at first, third, starting and closing pitchers by my picks, but light at catcher, short, and second, which means if a coach goes with three players from the less talented positions, one player from the deeper positions gets snubbed.

As I stated before, a lot of talent in the American League will either be snubbed at the deeper positions solely because you can't have four first basemen or four third basemen nor can you have one shorstop/second baseman or, as usual, by the voting at the starting positions.

The AL simply has a couple positions that don't deserve an All-Star at all, so I could see the NL pulling out a win and unfairly taking homefield advantage of the World Series even though the AL, as a whole, is clearly better.